Mayor Stoney’s proposal to increase Richmond’s meals tax to help rehabilitate and repair Richmond Public Schools has been a divisive issue throughout the River City since he introduced it in his State of the City speech two weeks ago. The increase, which will take effect July 1, will raise the current meals tax from six percent to 7.5 percent, an incremental rise of 1.5 percent. When combined with the state sales tax, diners will soon see a total of 12.8 percent on their bill. While 7.5 percent is the same tax rate for meals in Hampton and Newport News, the tax hike would be one of the highest in the nation.

Opponents have pointed to the fact that the meals tax was supposed to have been temporarily raised in 2003 to pay for the Centerstage Theatre, but was never rescinded, eventually becoming permanent in 2006 when City Council voted to allocate it to the city’s general fund.

The increase, would produce approximately $9.1 million a year and allow the city to borrow $150 million in new capital funding over the next five years. Without this tax, Richmond has about $66 million of debt capacity through 2023. Funds collected from the meals tax will be placed in a special reserve fund, specifically for Richmond Public Schools.

Earlier in the evening, an amendment to the original proposal was initially put forth to add a five-year sunset on the tax ending July 1, 2023, but was voted down.

Council then heard from both opponents and supporters that were packed into City Hall to voice their concerns, ideas, and solutions on the tax only for the second time since the proposal was introduced. Local residents, students, teachers, restaurant owners, and representatives from organizations and businesses were in attendance and each side was given 30 minutes to talk and each person from each side was given two minutes at the mic.

Rod Bullock, a former student at Armstrong, spoke about the despair RPS facilities are in, pointing out one councilmember had even visited one of them to witness the problems.

“It’s time y’all step up and looked at these facilities, it’s been years of neglect, this is our children’s way out, that’s what bothers me, you don’t put the investment in these children,” he said as ‘Vote Yes and Find the Rest’ signs shot up all over the room.

Next, children at various Richmond schools paraded up the mic to voice their support of the meals tax hike.

Deon Cosby, a student at Thomas Jefferson High School went through a list of repairs that the money from the tax could fix at her school.

“…better facilities, peeling ceilings, new desks, fix the AC units, and get a new football field,” she said.

Three Binford Middle School 8th grade girls came up to the podium and spoke next, also in favor of the increased tax.

“The meals tax money will better the day to day lives of RPS students,” one of them said. “Our schools need better technology, cleaning and replacing schools water pipes, they contain lead that can damage our brains.”

Lola McDowell, a retired RPS teacher spoke twice during the night and shared her experiences inside the dilatated schools, which have been in the same state for years.

“Having taught for many years, they have leaking toilets, bad plumbing, falling or missing tiles and mold in the walls just to name a few, that needs to be fixed, I wouldn’t want any child of mine to attend a school in that condition, the deterioration of these schools is detrimental to our students,” she said.

Richmond Association of Realtors CEO Laura Lafayette also voiced her support of meals tax increase by turning to the attendees and asking whoever was in support to stand up, with most of the packed-house rising from their seats.

On the other side, Richmond restaurant owners, many of whom were part of a recently-formed lobbying group to fight the proposed tax hike, spoke Monday night against the increase.

Eric Terry, President of the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging Travel Association stressed that it was more than just a few cents on a high dollar tab and it is the low-income and single working mothers and fathers of Richmond that would be impacted the most.

“We all support the schools…it’s been painted as a white tablecloth restaurant tax,” he said. “The person who is taxed the most is the single parent grabbing a happy meal.”

He also stressed the financial burden put on the restaurant owners themselves.

“It’s a burden for the restaurant industry that hasn’t been talked about,” he said referencing the $1.3 million in credit card fees that restaurants pay to collect the meals tax. “We’re the only ones that are considered in this, and I would urge you to stop, pause and look at other opportunities to fully fund this program.”

Longtime restaurateur Johnny Giavos (Kitchen 64, Kuba Kuba, Sidewalk Café, Little Nickel, Stella’s, The Continental) spoke out passionately against the increase, along with Michelle Williams, head of Richmond Restaurant Group who told council she has contributed millions of dollars to the city’s budget. And while she reiterated other restaurant owners’ sentiments about the importance of investing in our schools, she urged the council not to simply target restaurants.

“We agree there needs to be change. If our kids really do matter and our kids really can’t wait, we need to look at more than one industry,” she said.

Councilwoman Kristen Larson of the 4th District, who voted no, urged for more time before members took a vote since Mayor Stoney just introduced it to the public two weeks ago.

“Something of this importance and magnitude and $150 million we have to give it more time,” she said.

Gray, who was the only other person on city council to vote no, has children in Richmond Public Schools and stressed that they did need drastic improvements, however, there has not been enough time to consider all the options.

“This plan has not been fully vetted with substantial public input as promised,” said Gray. “What is the rush? “Mayor Stoney should explain to citizens why he can’t implement the process he presented.”

On the other hand, Reva Trammel of the 8th District painted a vivid picture holding up her cell phone of what life is like for Broad Road Elementary School students before voting yes to increase the meals tax.

“What put the icing on the cake, the mayor invited me to Broadrock, that’s where my daughter went back in the day,” she said. “It broke my heart. They don’t have a cafeteria they have to walk in the rain, in the snow, in the mud to get into this trailer that has nothing but tables and chairs for the children to eat. No cafeteria. The food is brought in for them to eat. No teacher or student should not have a cafeteria where they can sit together and eat. When I went to school I didn’t have ceiling tiles falling on my head, I didn’t have rats and roaches…”

President Hilbert said this was the toughest issue he had to vote on since being on council, but ultimately, didn’t waver in his decision along with Vice President Newbille, who said that RPS students deserve and Richmond needs to provide “state of the art facilities.”

After much back and forth from both sides, and after Agelasto voiced concerns and his solutions to the tax, the council then suggested a 30-day continuance on the meals tax proposal, which failed 5-4, with Addison, Jones, Robertson, Hilbert, and Newbille voting no which led to City Council pushing through the 1.5 meals tax on restaurants on a 7-2 vote, much to the dismay of many in the crowd.

Stoney, who was not in attendance at the meeting, will introduce the city budget on March 6.

Opponents and proponents squared off last night at the Organizational Development Committee, the only committee meeting to take public comments on Mayor Levar Stoney’s controversial proposal to raise the meal taxes. While the rhetoric over the proposal has become quite contentious, especially online, the mood at City Council was congenial if not somewhat emotional, with people on both sides of the issue respectfully stating their case.

The session opened with a presentation by the city on how the taxes would be collected and implemented. David Rose, one of the city’s financial advisors, gave a broad overview of the city’s debt structure and the decisions that were made leading to the proposed meal’s tax increase, which he said was congruent with cities like Hampton and Newport News. “We tried to look at all the revenue sources available from four factors,” he told council. “Is the revenue source sustainable, reliable, does the locality have discretion and then finally, is it available?”

Part of the confusion over the proposed tax has been where money can be collected from. Rose sought to clarify this, explaining why it cannot be collected from sectors like the hospitality industry. “When we say available, you’ll notice that the lodging tax is not available,” he said, stating that those revenues are dedicated to debt repayment for things like the Greater Richmond Convention Center.

Chris Hilbert. Richmond City Council President

Another of the counter-arguments made against the city’s proposal has been the suggestion that property taxes should be raised, which was also addressed by Rose. “For example, personal property tax for real estate is 100 percent born by city residents like you and I,” said Rose, explaining that the meals tax is shared by tourists and people coming in from the counties and not solely shared by residents, “from the confines of the city.” He finished by explaining that Virginia is limited by its lack of income tax to bond off of – citing Cincinnati, Ohio as an example of a city that has the kind of bonding capacity that the Commonwealth lacks to raise revenues.

Stoney’s proposal will raise Richmond’s meal tax 1.5 percent, which would raise the current tax to 7.5 percent, and when combined with the state sales tax would total 12.8 percent. The meal’s tax was increased in 2003, from 5 to 6 percent to help pay for the Centerstage Theatre. Upon completion of the theatre the tax was supposed to be rescinded, however, it was made permanent in 2006 to pay for “operational costs” to Richmond’s general fund – a long-standing grievance cited by the restaurant community.

After the city completed its presentation, the floor was opened for both sides to make comments. Each side had 30 minutes to highlight their perspective with each speaker being given three minutes to state their case. After some initial confusion over whose turn it was to speak, including a school board member and the new school board superintendent, Jason Kamras, Richmond restauranteurs made their case.

“We support RPS [Richmond Public Schools] and the urgent need to revitalize the school system,” said Shannon Conway who spoke on behalf of the Rueger Restaurant Group. “We do not support the meals tax for several reasons, one being this is only a plan and it is the only plan in play. How are we to believe this plan is comprehensive and carefully considered when it is the only one.”

Referencing the first meals tax hike, Conway voiced her concerns on trusting the city to allocate all of the funds to Richmond schools.

“The meals tax has been used before to raise funds that have not gone to the project in which they were intended. The 2003 hike was one such example which was supposed to sunset after a year…there is no guarantee that all funds from this tax hike will go to RPS,” she said.

Jason Kamras, Richmond’s New School Superintendent

The restaurant community has been one of the most vocal critics of Stoney’s proposal, citing a potential loss of business, the previous tax hike, and an inevitable shift of cost to customers, all of which is targeting their industry uniquely. “We’ve been through a lot lately, the downtown restaurants…when taxes go up people don’t come out as often,” said Liz Kinkaid who spoke on behalf of the restaurant group that owns Little Saint, Tarrant’s, and Max’s on Broad. In addition to the potential consequences of the meals tax, she also cited construction of The Pulse along Broad Street as a factor in declining business, citing a 5 percent drop in sales. “When sales go down, waitresses can’t make their mortgages, people can’t make rent. When taxes go up in the city, we feel that,” she said.

Kinkaid wrapped up by voicing her support for rehabilitating schools, but urged the city to seek out an alternative to another meals tax increase.

“I know we need money for schools, we all know that. We would ask that you take the same six months to really look for a better plan. When I go apply for an awning permit it took six months, so I don’t understand why in just a few weeks we can roll out a whole new tax program,” she said.

Liz Kinkaid Addressing Council

Ultimately, the committee voted to take the proposal for full approval at next week’s council meeting. The recommendation was supported by Councilpersons Addison, Hilbert, Robertson, Newbille, and Jones, while the other members sought to slow down the process in order to meet with constituents. Nonetheless, in a Facebook post after the vote, Stoney said, “Tonight’s vote was a recognition that we shouldn’t delay in getting our kids the schools they deserve.” Regardless of the outcome, the meals tax will continue to prove divisive and has set the stage for a wider conversation on how to best administer the critical needs of the River City.

*This story has been updated to note that Menz-Erb has withdrawn her candidacy for the Education Compact Team this afternoon.

Former 3rd District School Board member and Education Compact team-nominee, Cindy Menz-Erb has launched an email campaign asking people to avoid restaurants who don’t support Mayor Stoney’s proposal to raise the meals tax. In an email that was forwarded to RVA Mag, Menz-Erb, encouraged people to, “Only patronize restaurants who support the meals tax. There will be signs for restaurants to display soon but in the meantime, just ask if they support it.”

The Mayor has proposed increasing the city’s meals tax to 7.5 percent to help rehabilitate and renovate Richmond Public Schools, which would produce approximately $9.1 million a year and allow the city to borrow $150 million in new capital funding over the next five years. However, the issue has been contentious for the Richmond restaurant community, who were subject to a previous tax increase in 2003. If passed, the total tax would increase to 12.8 percent, which has led local restaurateurs and restaurant groups to form a new lobby group called the Richmond Restaurant Alliance, in partnership with the Virginia Restaurant, Travel and Lodging Association.

Menz-Erb, originally from New York, was an interim School Board member in 2017 before losing the seat in the open election to Kenya Gibson last November. Since then, she has been nominated to serve on the Education Compact Team pending a confirmation vote by City Council. The council is a volunteer board made up of members of City Council and the school board along with citizens nominated by the mayor, all tasked to help Richmond Public Schools reach “achievement to levels matching or exceeding statewide benchmarks,” and “implementing a concerted strategy to reduce child poverty by 50 percent by 2030 while mitigating the impact of poverty on learning.”

The email, which was circulated at 3 pm Wednesday, has led to a significant outcry among the restaurant community and other City Council members. In a post to Facebook, 5th District City Councilman, Parker Camp Agelasto said he emailed Stoney the following: “Cindy Menz-Erb has significantly misstepped in sending this email,” he said in the post. “This is not becoming for someone that you have nominated for the Education Compact Team.” He concluded with the following, “I particularly find her suggestion that supporters of the meals tax only patron those restaurants in support shows bad judgment. Too bad. I hope you will take proactive steps in fixing this problem as this email is out publically and there are many angry people…this is an issue.”

In response to the controversy surrounding this email, Stoney released a statement via Facebook at 9 am that said, “I do NOT support penalizing anyone, or any business, for their beliefs. In fact – I feel the exact opposite.” The statement goes on to say that he believes there is the opportunity to support the restaurant community and public schools at the same time and that public debate is healthy. ‘As this debate moves forward, I plan to visit restaurants on all sides of this issue, to thank them for what they do for our city, and to learn how, I, as Mayor, can do more to help them grow and thrive in Richmond. I hope everyone who sees this will do the same. ”

Menz-Erb withdrew her candidacy this afternoon. She apologized for her words and said she didn’t intend to promote a boycott.

“That was not my intent, and I apologize for the wording of my statement. We want all of our restaurants to be successful for the benefit of our schools,” she said in a statement she sent to the Times-Dispatch.

The issue surrounding the meals tax will likely remain contentious with proponents and opponents on both sides making their voice heard. Speaking to RVA Mag about the issue of public officials making statements such as this, Agelasto said, “Before yesterday, I [was positive on her appointment], she was an enthusiastic volunteer and school board member, but after what she did yesterday, that’s not the approach I want on a board that’s supposed to be collaborative.” He added that the city needs people to eat at local restaurants to support the meals tax that is already in place, “I’m against any boycott at all.”

RVA Mag reached out to Menz-Erb for comment, but she has yet to respond.

Richmond restaurateurs are heated once again, as the city has served up a proposal for yet another hike to meal taxes. And this time, restaurant owners have united to form a lobbyist group to fight back.

In his State of the City speech this week, Mayor Levar Stoney proposed raising Richmond’s meal tax to 7.5 percent to help renovate and repair Richmond City Public Schools, which would produce approximately $9.1 million a year and allow the city to borrow $150 million in new capital funding over the next five years.

Mayor Stoney with students at Chimborazo Elementary School

“I do not relish the idea of imposing a higher tax on any of our residents or even our visitors. And I respect the concerns of our restaurateurs who are responsible for so much of the positive trends we’ve seen in our city,” Stoney said in his address. “I promise to be a committed champion for their success, and pledge that we will work with you to make it easier for you to grow and expand.”

But that burn of a meals tax increase is an all too familiar feeling for local restaurant owners. In 2003, the city tacked on an extra 1 percent, raising the meals tax from 5 to 6 percent to help pay for the construction of Centerstage. Once the performing arts center was built, the tax was supposed to be tossed, but it remained on after a 2006 City Council vote to be poured into Richmond’s general fund for “operational costs”.

Now, the new proposed 1.5 percent increase may not seem like much, but combined with the 5.3 percent state tax, the total tax would increase to 12.8 percent. To compare, Henrico collects a 4 percent tax, but surrounding counties, like Chesterfield, and Hanover, do not have a meals tax.

Restaurant owners, fed up with forking over hefty payments and shifting the costs to customers and in turn, hearing complaints, losing money, and some even losing business to the surrounding counties, are fighting back with a newly formed group, the Richmond Restaurant Alliance.

Jake Crocker, owner of F.W. Sullivan’s, Lady N’awlins, and Uptown Market & Deli rallied more than 30 people in the restaurant community this week to form the organization and talk about next steps to take on the proposed heighten tax.

“Every few years they target one specific industry, our politicians make promises to reduce the tax, and now they’ve reversed it,” Crocker said. “The current mayor has publicly and privately made those promises to a number of the restaurant owners, so we’re very disappointed that this was the ultimate solution.”

Owners from Richmond Restaurant Group, to Rueger Restaurant Group to Johnny Giavos, were in attendance, with the group representing over 100 restaurants in the area combined according to Crocker. Since the meeting, the newly-formed RRA organization has partnered with the Virginia Restaurant, Travel and Lodging Association (VRTLA), who will help push efforts forward.

“They’re committed, and they have fought this successfully in other localities including Fairfax County, so they’re going to be working with us,” he said. “They have expertise in the area from other initiatives in other parts of the states so we’re excited.”

Matt Simmons, owner of Capital Ae House and secretary of VRTLA, said his restaurant has been a member of the association for years and like most in the community, wants the schools to be improved, but doesn’t agree with the way the city is suggesting to get the money for the much-needed repairs.

“No one is arguing that our schools need to be fixed, but it’s absurd to target one industry to solve this or any issue,” he said. “Richmond has a vibrant restaurant scene and this would throw cold water on the good things that are now happening. We are meeting to discuss this issue and get the word out to city council members that taking the easy way out could hurt an industry that helps Richmond shine.”

The VRTLA, a political action committee for the aforementioned industries, organized a grassroots campaign in 2016 with the National Restaurant Association to help successfully defeat a proposed 4 percent meals tax increase in Fairfax County.

Crocker, who threw his political hat in the ring this year as a Libertarian candidate for the 69th District, headed up a “Repeal the Meal Tax” campaign back in 2011 to urge the city to get rid of the Centerstage tax hike that was intended to be temporary.

And up until a few days ago, he, like many restaurant owners, was under the impression there was going to be a reduction in the taxes.

“The fact that all the restaurants are mobilizing to prevent an increase is unfathomable,” he said. “No one even had a taste of this. A few of the restaurant owners did meet with the mayor and expressed their concerns, and he still went ahead with it anyway. It’s frustrating because I’m a supporter…but a lot of the restaurant folks who rallied behind him are feeling hurt…it’s our livelihoods.”

Patrons are the ones that bear the brunt of the taxes getting collected, which Crocker said is an issue that regularly comes up at his Fan restaurants.

“Everyday you have a customer who points at that tax and confronts the server about it and demands to see a server or manager,” he said. “They think we’re gouging them and I’m like, ‘look I’m on your side, I don’t want to charge this tax.’ Especially at Lady N’awlins, I get a lot of people from around the region and the counties and they’re like, ‘what is this?’”

Often the customers that complain, then, in turn, take their frustration with the taxes out on the restaurants, which was one of the many common themes brought up at the RRA meeting according to Crocker.

“Many times, they will tip extremely low, or, this is the fun one, they’ll write ‘taxes’ on the tip line so they stiff the server,” he said. “Everybody (restaurant owners) had the same story.”

Simmons has Capital Ale House locations both inside the city, as well as Midlothian and Innsbrook, and he said customers from the counties are also steamed when they see those added taxes to their bill.

“Right now my customers pay 6 percent more for everything in Richmond than they do at our Midlothian location,” Simmons said. “When quoting prices for banquets and other events, people are shocked to find out taxes are 11.3 percent currently and will be even more shocked if that increases to 12.8 percent.”

“During the busy season, I have to explain the taxes to tourists multiple times a week. Think about that, I’m running a restaurant and hours of my life are spent explaining tax code to people from New York, that’s insane,” Foster said. “People that travel into the city from any other state are appalled at the tax rate. Last year, our restaurant alone paid well over a million in taxes, in addition to supporting local causes like the Feedmore food bank and Real Local RVA. What do we get in return? Bike races that hurt our business’ by almost 50 percent and a training camp filled with national restaurant chains. Now the city that has spent years mismanaging funds is asking restaurants and working-class Americans to pay 12 cents out of every dollar claiming that it’s for schools.”

The Daily Kitchen & Bar

But, despite customers protesting the taxes, Crocker did address the heightened taxes on a meal will be a huge burden on low-income families and single parents working multiple jobs that need to eat out while they’re on the go with their children.

“There are families I heard from in the previous campaign, both working two jobs, single mom or dad, they’re shuffling between different shifts and they’ve got kids,” he said. “These lower-income families don’t have a stay at home member of the family and the kids have to eat and they’re often grabbing food on the fly, some are mom and pop owners themselves. Eating out is a necessity when you’re working two jobs and raising kids so it affects them.”

Foster chimed in on this as well, agreeing that it’s going to hurt the mom and pop restaurants and working-class residents of Richmond.

“The mayor is claiming that it’s ‘just a couple pennies’, but my two cents is that this will hurt him in the next election. The margin he won by is less than the profit margin of most restaurants,” he said. “I’m also almost always in support of taxing the wealthy to support our society, but this is a tax this will hit the working class consumer the hardest and restaurateurs that struggle with 15 percent profit margins so they can keep the doors open to employee thousands of people second.”

But it’s not just restaurant patrons that are left with a stomach ache when the bill arrives, Richmond restaurant owners are having to pay extra fees, and some have to hire employees to keep track of the taxes collected.

Crocker sends between $10,000 to $15,000 a month to the city for the meals tax, and beyond that, Richmond restaurants combined are paying about $25 million a year to the city for the meals tax alone.

“Everybody says it’s just a pass through, but you find me a restaurant that’s not struggling to keep up with it, and you’d be hard-pressed to find one that isn’t.”

Carter Snipes, who runs The Hofheimer Building and The HofGarden, is fairly new to the issue, but that’s been his biggest gripe.

“We’ve got to have separate bank accounts, we get charged fees on all those dollars coming in, we’re paying $1,000 a month to collect the city’s taxes, and we have to hire a bookkeeper and not only does it cost us money from the credit card processing to collect the money for the city, we also have to then, pay someone from our company to administer that whole process, and a lot of these restaurant owners are small business owners, they don’t have a bookkeeper. And that’s a huge deal, that’s a huge burden on these operators.”

And Foster said between all the Richmond Restaurant Group’s restaurants combined, the group is paying hundreds of thousands each month to the city for meals taxes, which has forced the group to make sacrifices at their establishments.

Pearl Raw Bar, part of Richmond Restaurant Group

“In order to deal with the increase in taxes, restaurants have to either raise prices or cut labor. So for a lot of places, in order to keep the lights on and still be competitive in the market you have to cut peoples hours back,” he said. “That means that people then have less disposable income to put back into the local economy, so less people go out to restaurants, so you cut back on labor even more, then quality goes down and business’ close. I’m just not sure what this city and state seem to have against local business’ and why they always seem to push and promote outside business over the welfare of its residents and voters.”

Snipes brought up the referendum on the ballot this past November, which stated that the mayor had to come up with a plan within six months of the election to repair and fund the schools without tax increases, and 85 percent of voters approved it.

“In my opinion, they haven’t done the first step, which is to offer the plan or say it can’t be done, and they came out with this tax increase,” Snipes said. “But the referendum specifically said a plan without tax increases.”

A recent Richmond Times-Dispatch article broke down some of the city’s spending courtesy of reports from Virginia’s Auditor of Public Accounts. According to those reports, Richmond is spending more per capita on administrative costs ($381.80), public safety ($822) and health ($823) than the state averages for each. However, when it came to education, the city spends $1,511 per capita, which is less than the state average.

But Snipes, who has two children in grade school, along with Crocker, and the majority of the restaurant community stressed that they are in favor of supporting and rehabilitating the schools, but that the city needs to come up with a better way to reduce expenses and overhead.

“I’m fully 100 percent in support of the schools, but I think this particular proposal is not the best or most efficient proposal to solve the problem,” Snipes said. “I think most people would be fine with tax increases if the city showed some goodwill and find some savings in the budget.”

He suggested breaking up taxes to a few industries equally across the board.

“There a should be a quarter percent tax on real estate, a quarter percent tax on meals, a quarter percent tax on hotels, and everyone shares that burden because it’s something we need to do for the community at large. It’s totally unfair to single out this one industry that has nothing to do with schools.”

Crocker had a similar suggestion for the city to implement retail taxes to help spread out some of the burdens.

“You put a 1 percent tax across the city on retail, grocery stores, bookstores, shoe stores, and restaurants, you’re going to get a hell of a lot more money than just restaurants,” he said.

The money that was given to Stone Brewing ($31 million) and the construction of the Redskins Training Center ($10 million) were also factors that Crocker pointed to as money that could have been diverted to the schools.

Simmons, on the other hand, said taxing an untapped resource like local vacation and apartment rentals would be a good source to generate revenue.

“The city is not taking advantage of new legislation that allows them to collect taxes on the many Airbnb properties in the city,” he said. “That’s a start that would bring in funds and level the playing field with the area hotels who do collect and pay taxes. An across the board sales tax increase on every purchase in the city would be much fairer than targeting restaurants.”

Richmond Restaurant Alliance will hold their next meeting on Tuesday, and no matter where you land on the issue, Crocker said the restaurant owners are going to take action very soon.

“We’ve got some initiatives in the works, we’re going to be heard and it’s not just going to be Jake Crocker speaking up, its everybody,” he said. “We will not be cannon fodder for the ambitions of politicians, we’re not going to be put on the frontlines, so they can achieve their goal.”